Saturday, 17 March 2018

GDPR and Drone Operations

I attended a very interesting CPD event at SCSI HQ earlier in the week - it covered upcoming changes to regulations for drone operations and also privacy issues. Privacy for drone surveys had always been a bit of a grey area, the IAA weren't regulating it, the Gardaí weren't - etc. The big change coming down the line will be the EU's General Data Protection Regulations (coming into effect on 28th May) and privacy will be a major consideration then with massive penalties for non-compliance (up to 10% of a companies annual turnover!). Terms such as a data processing impact assessment should put shivers down the spines of anyone considering flying in the coming months until it is clearer what effect it will have on surveyors and also the best way to plan for it.

As the Christine Woods from Matheson explained - "act now as preparation is necessary to achieve compliance".